EVENTS

By
CompiledScott Bauldauf /
July 8, 1993

WORLD LEADERS STRIKE DEAL ON TARIFFS After lengthy bargaining, the world's biggest trading powers achieved a breakthrough yesterday at the Tokyo summit of the Group of Seven, agreeing to cut import duties on a broad range of products. United States leaders expect the deal to re-spark the Uruguay Round of global trade talks, which may now be concluded by its Dec. 15 deadline. US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor, who huddled for about nine hours Tuesday and Wednesday with other negotiators, said the deal marked the "biggest tariff cut in histo ry." Negotiators said they would try to halve high duties of 15 percent or more on ceramics, glass, textiles, and apparel. The negotiators also agreed to a minimum cut of, on average, one-third in duties on scientific equipment, wood, paper, non-ferrous metal, and electronics. (Clinton in Tokyo, Page 1.) US calls Pacific summit

President Clinton called yesterday for a scheduled conference on Asian-Pacific leaders to be a summit, serving notice that the US does not intend to let Japan dominate the world's fastest growing economic region.

The Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (APEC), a 15-country group that includes the United States, Japan, and China, is scheduled to hold a ministerial meeting in Seattle Nov. 17-19. But Clinton said he wanted to turn the meeting into something bigger by bringing together the leaders of the countries that make up APEC, not just their ministers. The 15 APEC members account for nearly half of the world's production. Hurricane pounds Mexico

Dangerous winds and pounding seas closed seaports and airports as Hurricane Calvin crept northward yesterday along Mexico's Pacific coast. Storm-related accidents killed 28 people and 14,000 were forced from their homes by floods, the government news agency said.

The storm was nearing Lazaro Cardenas and the Playa Azul resort area, where a Norwegian tanker carrying 4,000 tons of corrosive sulfuric acid has been beached for days. The Mexican Navy said there was no immediate danger of leakage. Shipping agency officials said it was unlikely the tanker could be damaged by the storm.

News media reported that the Navy planned to tow the ship 60 miles offshore, neutralize the acid, and sink it a project that could take two weeks. Nigerian Army takes charge

Truckloads of troops in jungle fatigues quietly took control of Lagos yesterday in a show of force that kept tens of thousands of rioters off city streets for the first time in two days. Up to 24 people were killed July 6 during demonstrations against the military dictatorship, but the protests suddenly halted after the government of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida began bolstering police with mass infusions of federal troops.

The demonstrations were called to protest General Babangida's annulment of the June 12 presidential elections. Tens of thousands of people who took to the streets pelted police with rocks, looted shops, and attacked motorists who dared defy the strike call. Study on poverty, health

Wealth and education are major factors in life expectancy, according to research reported in the July 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The researchers found that between 1960 and 1986 the differences between the death rates of white and black Americans, which increased 20 percent for black women and over 100 percent for black men, were linked to poverty and schooling. N.Y. Post may close

Rupert Murdoch's News America Publishing company said it will stop trying to buy The New York Post tomorrow unless it has new agreements with the newspaper's unions. No other apparent buyers are in sight, and such a move probably would mean the end of the nation's oldest continuously published daily.

The Post is operating under protection of federal bankruptcy law. Mr. Murdoch, who owned the paper for 12 years and sold it in 1988, re-entered the picture in March as the paper bounced from one would-be owner to the next. He has been running the paper while trying to buy it.